The Times and The Sunday Times and carefully selected third parties use cookies on this site to improve performance, for analytics and for advertising. By browsing this site you are agreeing to this. For more information see our Privacy and Cookie policy.

By-election win

Politics: Labour won a comfortable victory in the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election on Thursday in the first test of the popularity of the coalition government since the general election. Debbie Abrahams took the seat with a majority of more than 3,500, compared with the tiny margin of 103 votes that the previous Labour MP, Phil Woolas, secured in the general election last May. The contest was called after Woolas was forced to stand down when a specially convened election court ruled he had made false statements about his Liberal Democrat opponent.

The Lib Dems’ failure to take the seat was interpreted as a rebuff for the leader, Nick Clegg, after the party backtracked on manifesto pledges on Vat and university tuition fees. Yvette Cooper,…